PR 




* s 







THE THEME 



OF 



HAMLET 



THE THEME OF HAMLET. 



"Thou art, too, like the spirit of Banquo." 



A PAPER: 



READ BEFORE THE FORTNIGHTLY CLUB OF ROCHESTER, N. Y., 



By Martin W.&^Cooke. 



PRIVATELY PRINTED. 




^<^^ 



Copyright, 1887, by M. W. Cooke. 



Charles Mann, Printer, 

Rochestc7\ N. ] ' 



&s^ 



INTRODUCTION. 

It would seem to be the duty of one who pro- 
poses to discuss the theme of Hamlet, to begin 
with an apology. Every one who rises to speak in a 
debate which has continued for over one hundred 
years, ought humbly to crave the indulgence of his 
audience and preface his remarks with a declaration 
of his willingness to vote in favor of a motion for the 
previous question. This I do. 

My confidence, in submitting- these investigations, 
is inspired by the trust that my readers will be like- 
minded to a writer in Blackwood' s Magazine who says : 
" We ask not for a picture of the whole landscape of 
the soul nor for a guide who shall point out all its won- 
ders. But we are glad to listen to every one who has 
traveled through the kingdom of Shakespeare. Some- 
thing interesting there must be in the humblest jour- 
nal, and we turn with equal pleasure from the converse 
of those who have climbed over the magnificence of 
the highest mountains there, to the lowlier tales of less 
ambitious pilgrims who have sat on the green and 
sunny knoll beneath the whispering tree and by the 
music of the gentle rivulet." 

I have not aspired to the role of painter, guide or 
mountain climber; nor, do I boast of sitting on the 
green and sunny knoll ; but, in the effort to say an un- 
said word of Hamlet, I admit a weakness which has led 
me to emulate the zeal of the young anatomist of to- 
day who burns his midnight oil in the seemingly hope- 
less task of discovering an unknown tissue of the 
human body : or, rather, the ambition of the mariner 



4 The Theme of Hamlet. 

who refuses to profit by the failures of his predecessors 
and risks his reputation and his life in the effort to find, 
explore and reveal the fugitive northern pole. Furness 
says: "Upon no throne built by mortal hands has 
' beat so fierce a light ' as upon the airy fabric reared at 
Elsinore." I confess a loving labor with my little 
mallet and chisel with which I have busied leisure 
hours in pecking at this literary sphynx. 

I would prove a peace-maker harmonizing the fierce 
contestants who have quarrelled over the problem. I 
would enlist for my cause and convert to my standard 
the champions of feigned insanity and of real insan- 
ity and their followers; and, allied with the smaller 
independent bands, I would storm this seemingly 
impregnable Castle of Hamlet, and let into it the light 
of day and open to view the dingy, ghostly rooms where 
mystery has reigned supreme for centuries. 

Shakespeare pondered much upon the human mind. 
He created men with abnormal minds, and showed by 
their conduct, speech and tragic fates the personal, 
social and political ends of those who are "slaves of 
passion," and so demonstrated what the human mind 
is not or ought not to be. His greatest work was to 
show what the spirit of man is in this world. 

In Hamlet he sought to reveal the thought that 
without and above man is a power which has relation 
to him and whose mandates constitute the law of 
his being. He postulated simply the fact of the super- 
natural and its relation to man. What that power is, 
w^hether the "unknown power" of the modern sci- 
entist or the revealed Creator; what its nature, other 
than that it is supernatural, he does not seek to impart. 
Man he represents as a being endowed with reason, 
will and subordinate spiritual forces — the passions. In 
this world man, so organized and constituted, begins 
his existence and tarries till death ; and, while he 
tarries he is in anticipation of another or further ex- 
istence beyond the grave. The end of man's creation 



Introduction. 



5 



is not here, and beyond the veil of death we know not 
what will be. He rests this part of the delineation 
with the fact simply that we will be — that there is 
" something after death." Here the state is one of 
struggle. We " look before and after," but our vision 
is limited by birth in one direction and death in the 
other. His purpose is to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up 
to the spiritual life of man in this world. 



THE THEME OF HAMLET. 

The play of Hamlet is the master-piece of the 
master-mind in literature. Its power to interest and 
entertain all men — the ignorant and the learned — is 
not possessed to the same degree by any other play of 
Shakespeare. The place it occupies in literature, its 
universal power to please, and the varied interpreta- 
tions of it by the keenest critics, seem to justify re- 
newed efforts to solve its mystery and discover its 
meaning and the secret of its power. 

If one should read the criticisms of the play, with no 
other knowledge of the work, he would naturally infer 
that it was without meaning, and designed by its 
author as a literary puzzle. Did Shakespeare pur- 
posely create a purposeless production? Or, had he a 
consistent dramatic idea? Was he feigning insanity 
when he put forth this marvel of literature? Hamlet 
was one of the few plays that he re-wrote or revised. 
Shall we indict him for a second offense of fraud ? 

We have no sympathy with the suggestion that its 
author was merely a playwright, and wrote simply for 
ephemeral dramatic effect ; or, that he aimed only at pop- 
ular applause and the filling of his purse without regard 
to the meaning or worth of his productions. It is a libel 
against the intelligence of the playgoers of the time as 
well as an aspersion upon the author himself. Such a 
fling is the answer which not a few make to any effort 
to discover the theme of Hamlet. It is apparent from 
the work itself, and the study it has evoked, that 
it plunges deep into the mysteries of the life of man, 
not his political or social life, but his spiritual life ; 



^s 



8 TJic Theme of Hamlet. 

and, if the interpretations which deal with it as a sim- 
ple production, illustrating some one phase of man's 
being, have been so varied, so contradictory and unsat- 
isfactory, is it not wise to look for a deeper meaning? 
It is fair to assume that Shakespeare had a definite 
theme before his mind, although Thomas Campbell says : 
*' Shakespeare himself, had he even been as great a 
critic as a poet, could not have written a regular dis- 
sertation upon- Hamlet." The true explanation, if 
it is ever discovered, will, doubtless, be consistent 
with all the facts of the delineation and, at the 
same time, account for the universal admiration and 
intense interest which the play commands with the 
people of every nation, for its power over the coarsest 
as well as the most delicate sensibilities, and for the 
duLersity of the views as to its meaning. 

\Volumes have been written to demonstrate that 
Hamlet exhibits the vagaries of an insane per- 
son. Many contend that it represents the felicitous 
manoeuvers of a skillful artist feigning insanity to 
confound his associates. Others claim that it repre- 
sents genuine madness^ resulting from the effort to 
counterfeit the reality. , One critic, in 1796, published 
a treatise on the play, and in his second edition apolo- 
gized for the typographical errors of the first by as- 
serting that it was published in haste for fear some 
other person would anticipate his discovery of the true 
intent and meaning of the author, and his theory was 
that the play was designed as an attack on Mary, 
Queen of Scots ! This idea was revived and refined, 
in 1880, by a wiseacre in Germany. A German pro- 
fessor, in 1861, profoundly observed: " Protestantism 
will never fulfill its calling so long as its adherents are 
content to oppose the inexhaustible strength and cun- 
ning of its ancient evil foe with the mere consciousness 
of their righteous cause, so long as they will not learn 
to unite with the virtues of the Christian, the calm dis- 
passionate prudence and consequent energy of the man ; 



The TJicmc of Hamlet. 9 

so long as they continue to waste in foolish infatuation 
the power and aid which lie in their bosoms instead of 
using them." " This," he says, "is the end and aim 
of the lesson which Hamlet teaches." In 1881 a book 
was published in Philadelphia, the object of which was 
to show that Hamlet was a woman masquerading in 
male attire. 

It is a noticeable fact that the members of the med- 
ical profession who have written upon this subject, 
for the most part, have claimed that Hamlet was 
intended to be represented as actually insane. The 
most prominent adherents of this theory are : Dr. 
Ferriar (181 3), Dr. Maginn (1836), Dr. Ray (1847), Dr. 
Kellogg of N. Y. (i860). Dr. Connolly, a distinguished 
physician of London, published the most celebrated 
discussion of the question in 1863. Cardinal Wiseman 
advocated the same theory, in 1865, and declared that 
this controversy may be said to have been brought to 
a close by Dr. Connolly. 

On the other hand, the advocates of the theory of 
feigned insanity are more celebrated in letters and in 
Shakespearean criticism. I mention Robert S. Mac- 
kenzie (1780), Thomas Campbell (1818), Boswell (1821). 
Richard Grant White contended thcit Hamlet was per- 
fectly sane and a man of very clear and quick intellect- 
ual perception. James Russell Lowell is of the same 
opinion. Dr. Stearns (1871) admits that the majority 
of readers of the present day believe Hamlet's madness 
was real, but confesses himself to be in the minority. 
There are many other advocates of either side of this 
question, and it is candidly stated by many that the 
problem is insoluble. 

It is evident that this play was not designed as a 
representation of the life or experiences of any his- 
torical character ; nor is it an historical representation 
of events which may have occurred. It is a dramatic 
poem. The problem is to discover its theme. It is a 
mirror held up to nature. What is the reflected image ? 



10 The TJicnic of Hamlet. 

It is the mental conflict of humanity in this world. 
The struesrle is that which is common to the race 
and is between spiritual forces within the mind. 
Hamlet is made to feign mental agitation, the purpose 
or end of w4iich is neither to show madness nor the 
struggles of the hero with the palpable obstacles to his 
action ; but, rather, the conflict between his will and his 
passions, and thereby to illustrate that struggle which, 
in the life of man in this w^orld, is universal and ever 
active, which begins with his birth and ends only with 
his death. It is the spiritual tragedy of humanity — the 
struggle between the higher forces of the being and th.e 
lower. The forces in conflict are under law, and the final 
cause of the being and the struggles is not in this world. 
The spiritual ruler within the mind is reason ; the will is 
its executive ; the subordinate forces are the passions. 
The passions determine action by their control ov^r 
the will and reason. The conflict is violent or tame 
as the forces vary in strength in different persons and 
in the same person at different times, Tlie tendency 
of each passion is to determine the action of the being 
exclusively to its own gratification ; and its abnormal 
activity brings it into conflict with every other pas- 
sion w^hich interferes with its dominance and \\\\\\ the 
will as directed by reason. The office of the will is to 
control and direct action ; and, guided by reason, to regu- 
late all the powers which influence it. The rational 
activity of the will in conformity with a perfect standard 
of conduct, be it moral, religious or political, and the dis- 
cipline and control of the passions to secure such ac- 
tion, constitute the problem of morality, religion and 
society. The law, by obedience to which these ends 
are secured, is from without and is supernatural. It is 
the law of man's being, which his Creator enacted and 

enforces The play of Hamlet reflects the internal or 

spiritual life of man in this world. It represents a 
being \\ithin whom a struggle or conflict is ever active 
from birth to death, between the forces that are a part 



The Theme of Hamlet. 1 1 

of his nature, each of which is seeking to control and 
determine the action of the being. . In other tragedies, 
Shakespeare exhibits individual men ; in this one- 
man. In Othello, he intensifies the passion of jealousy, 
makes it ever uppermost and dominant, and represents 
the individual under the influences and temptations 
of the single passion, in his struggles with the obstacles 
to his action. In Macbeth, it is love of power, or 
ambition, which asserts authority and control within 
the man. In Romeo and Juliet we see how love inten- 
sified and in full control over every other passion and 
the will, breaks down the being. In every other 
tragedy the mind of the hero is abnormal, controlled 
by a single passion or a gi'oup of passions ; and Shake- 
speare makes the conduct and the speech and the re- 
sults show the effects of the sway of such rulers in the 
mind. In Hamlet he has concentrated all tragedies. 
Here every passion is an active, powerful rebel against 
the will which is made prominent, single and con- 
stant ; and every passion is intensified, but no one is 
continuous or controlling to the neglect of others. 
In Othello, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, we have 
rapid, fierce and violent action ; for in each the influ- 
ence to action is single. In Hamlet the forces which 
determine action counteract and cripple each other; 
and, although the struggle is intense and violent 
within, inaction is the result. 

Most of the Greek pla}^s turned on the representa- 
tion of mjan's will hopelessly struggling, in calamities, 
against Fate. Hamlet shoAvs the will of the same being, 
in his worldly estate, hopelessly contending with un- 
conquerable powers within him whose subordination is 
never reached in this world. The life of man, in this 
world, does not justify his creation. Nothing here to 
be attained can explain or account for man's existence. 
And this is an argument that the aim and explanation of 
this life and its struggles \\'\\\ be found only in the 
" undiscovered country, from whose bourne no traveler 
returns." 



t2 Ihc llicnic of Hanilct. 

The play shows the being to be commanded by a 
supernatural power or will — a will not of this world. 
Man's will, so commanded, is opposed by contending 
passions which are as much a part of his nature as his 
will or his reason, and each is a spiritual motive power ; 
so a warfare arises, and peace is compassed only by 
the arbiter — death. The scene in uhich the ghost 
of Hamlet's father imparts his dread command is the 
dawn, behind which is the unknown ; and, with the 
silence when " cracked that noble heart," begins the 
night when dreaded dreams may come, the apprehen- 
sion of which gives us pause in life. The Bible shows 
man as a being created pure but fallen, struggling 
hopelessly in sin, to eternal death — the Creator assum- 
ing his nature, overcoming sin, the enemy of man, and 
helping him to his eternal rescue. The Saviour was a 
man obedient to the will of his Father, he was tempted 
in all points like as we are — yet without sin. He was 
what man should be in this world. The moral conflict 
of humanity is grandly pictured by the apostle Paul, 
in the seventh chapter of Romans. Shakespeare, unin- 
spired, looked into the mind of man, explored the re- 
cesses of the human heart ; and, in this play, he reveals 
and illustrates its secrets. The theme of Hamlet is the 
internal life of the same being in this world. It reveals 
a warfare which does not manifest itself in clash of 
swords or roar of cannon, but which rages, never ceas- 
ing, till the dissolution of the soul and body — " the 
rest is silence." 

To illustrate this struggle, Shakespeare creates a hero 
seemingly having the highest advantages ; he is a 
prince ; the certain choice of the people as successor 
to his father the king, then dead. Hamlet is young; 
of matchless mind and body ; keen in intellect ; fully 
equipped with learning, strength and skill ; of marvel- 
ous insight \- — his affections already centered on the 
beautiful and accomplished Ophelia, who reciprocates 
his attachment ; and, withal, he is *' proud, revengeful 



The Theme of Hamlet. 13 

and ambitious" as he himself confesses. Shakespeare 
imposes on this hero thus environed and thus equipped 
with intellect, strong passions and delicate sensibilities, 
a commission, supernaturally imparted to him, to the 
performance of which all else must be, and is, made 
subordinate. This demands that the entire mind and 
all the affections, desires and feelings — the whole nature 
of Hamlet — shall be guided by his reason and governed 
by his will, which are bent on executing the command. 
It puts into conflict with his Avill, so guided, every 
passion, the gratification of which is impeded by, or for- 
bidden in, the execution of the commission to revenge 
his father's murder. He is not prompted and con- 
trolled by his own passion of revenge. It is a being 
seemingly prompted to action by the command of the 
will of another and that communicated supernaturally. 
The commission was not of extraordinary magnitude 
except that it was for Hamlet to perform it. It was 
seemingly a simple act for him to do, but the design 
was to make him appear to be hampered and retarded 
by the influences of his own feelings. The supreme 
determination to obey the command of his father's 
ghost was ever uppermost, but not unshaken by fear 
that he was deceived. His w ill was opposed, not by 
the difflculties of the act to be done, not by the phys- 
ical obstacles in his way, nor by the calamities about 
him, but by the powers within him which refused to 
be controlled — at times, weakening his faith in the 
reality of the command of his father's ghost aiid retard- 
ing his action when his resolution was unshaken. It is 
not the strife to stab the king, nor the effort to revenge 
his father's murder which challenges and enchains our 
admiration and courts our study; it is the struggle of 
Hamlet's will with — something! To discover the 
nature and scope of this struggle is the object of our 
study. 

Shakespeare sees in man a ruling spirit — reason, 
whose executive is the will and to which all other 



14 TJlc Theme of Hamlet. 

spiritual forces are, or should be, subordinate, and yet 
whose throne is not impregnable. Its subjects plot 
and struggle for the mastery. Any passion unregu- 
lated and unrestrained, would destroy the system. 
Limited and controlled in their normal spheres, they 
produce a harmony of contending powers which is 
nature's greatest product. This is no democracy. God 
made man in his own image. The destruction of the 
ruler is the destruction of all his subjects. This spirit- 
ual kinc^dom runs on in secret as a whirlinj^ world 
moves amidst unnumbered others of like structure and 
is likewise governed from without. Its history is a 
conflict in darkness, illumined only by the light of 
revelation or illustrated by the poet's pen. The poet 
of the Golden Age painted man viewed in his relations 
to his fellow-man. The golden poet of the Elizabethan 
age opens to our view the internal mental life of man 
in this world. Virgil paints the building. Shake- 
speare pictures the occupants and the scenes within. 
Hamlet is the vehicle of the poet's thought. The 
play is the thing by which he reveals to others what 
he has seen in this spiritual world. 

I will refer to some of the criticisms of Hamlet 
and endeavor to show that the true interpretation of 
the play, if it is such as I have surmised, accounts for 
their variety ; and glean from them, as from expert 
witnesses, proof they may furnish in support of this 
view. I can only indulge in a glance at them, for the 
criticisms which Germany alone has furnished would 
equip a library with books. By some the theme I sug- 
gest is hinted or so nearly stated that it may be claimed 
it is not inconsistent with their views. A little more 
than a hundred years ago, the great scholar Lessing 
brought to the attention of his countrymen the riches 
of Shakespeare ; and, notably, the play of Hamlet took 
possession of the German mind. It amounted to 
nothing short of enthusiasm — enthusiasm which never 
waned. Furness says: "Given a printing-press on 



The Theme of Hamlet. 1 5 

German soil (and the printing-press is indigenous there) 
and, lo ! an essay on Hamlet." The whole German 
mind seems to have been inoculated with the matter 
of Hamlet ; and the disease always has been epidemic. 

" And now remains that we find out the cause of this 
effect." That it is a marvelous tribute to Shakespeare's 
genius is patent in any view. The man who could so 
stir the depths of German intellect by any wand he 
might create, whether one of magic or poetic structure, 
needs no greater praise. Is it a cunning monster that 
has so agitated this intellectual sea? Or, is it a crea- 
ture of such delicate and rnysterious anatomy that its 
structure has been destroyed by every effort at dis- 
section ? 

If this play is such a mirror as now • suggested, 
and was designed and well calculated to reflect the 
spiritual struggles of man in this world, it would be 
natural to expect that he who looks into it with no 
pre-conception of its character, so that the reflected 
image pictured on the retina of his " mind's eye " is 
undistorted by a defective vision or imperfect medium, 
will see //////i'r//' reflected ; and, in his heart, the strug- 
gling prince will find a sympathy born of fellow-feeling. 
Herein is the secret of the universal interest in this 
play. The simple spectator finds a response to his 
own struggles. For such a view the play was designed. 
The critic's eye may find what he is looking for (as the 
believer in any creed may find seeming support to his 
doctrine in the Bible), but he may, at the same time, 
fall far short of Shakespeare's thought. 

Again, assuming that this view is the true one, and 
that the play is a perfect work of art, it would natur- 
ally be expected that any one who looked into it with 
the pre-determination that it was designed to reflect 
the characteristics of an individual — a possible person 
— would see reflected, either his own conception of 
some character he imagines represented ; or, discover- 
ing inconsistencies, he would judge the person or 



1 6 TJic TJicine of Hamlet. 

character supposed to be represented, to be insane; or, 
to be an impossible consistent character except upon 
the hypothesis that he is feigning madness. 

Hudson, speaking of the diversity of opinions in re- 
gard to Hamlet, and admitting that there are facts in 
the delineation which, considered by themselves, 
would sustain any one of the varied views, but none of 
them reconcilable with all the facts taken together, 
says: "All agree in thinking of Hamlet as an actual 
person," 

This supposition, that Hamlet is an actual person — 
a possible individual — concentrates the attention upon 
Hamlet or the individual, diverting it from what Ham- 
let is imitating or representing, to the person he 
is supposed to be. Whereas, Hamlet is a player, made 
to act and speak as a man would act and speak under 
the influence of mental agitation, to the end, not of 
exhibiting his powers of acting or himself, but, to the 
end of discovering the mental struggles which induce 
the speech and action. We look into his conduct and 
speech, or, rather the mental agitation they evidence, 
as into a mirror, and we see reflected the spiritual 
struggle then considered. His speech and action are 
the external indications — effects — of the internal con- 
flict. He is imitating humanity and he is not the 
handiwork of one of " nature's journeymen, that imi- 
tates humanity abominably." Shakespeare would not 
have the spectator look at the instrument he employs, 
but " rather the necessary question of the play con- 
sidered." He employs his hero, not to exhibit himself, 
but to reflect his thought. The idea that Hamlet is an 
actual person — a possible individual^ — and that Shake- 
speare designed to represent in Hamlet such a person, 
is inconsistent with this proposition. Hamlet is the 
poet's vehicle, his instrument, by which he makes known 
his own thoughts. He is not exhibiting Hamlet, but 
using him as a mirror. The fundamental error of the 
criticisms that we shall notice, and, in fact, of nearly 



TJlc TJicnic of Hamlet. \j 

all the dissertations on the play, is the assumption 
tliat this is the representation of an actual person or 
character. See how it strikes Taine, the poet critic of 
France: ''You recognize in him a poet's soul, made 
not to act, but to dream ; which is lost in contemplat- 
ing the phantoms of its own creations ; which sees the 
imaginary world too clearly to play a part in the real 
world ; an artist whom evil chance has made a prince ; 
whom worse chance has made an avenger of crime ; 
and who, designed by nature for genius, is condemned 
by fortune to madness and unhappiness. Hamlet is 
Shakespeare, and at a close of a gallery of portraits 
which have all some features of his own, Shakespeare 
has painted himself in the most striking of tltem all." 
, The German poet Freiligrath, with inspiration kin- 
dled by his poetic contemplation of the Fatherland, 
its trials, fears, griefs and joys, its hopes and struggles, 
sees the fond object of his dreams and subject of his 
song, and so he sings : " Hamlet is Germany." The 
politician sees illustrated the conflict of parties. The 
German student sees the German half-professor. The 
theologian sees the struggle of Protestantism with 
Catholicism or the strife of sects. The common thinker 
demands of Garrick the restoration of the grave scene, 
for to him the image is defective, wanting the element 
of the vanity of life. The medical expert sees the 
working of a mind diseased, the abnormal action of an 
unbalanced and disordered intellect ; the philosopher — 
the futility of his principles and tenets when they come 
to cope with life's practical problems. 

Goethe says it is clear to his mind that Shakespeare 
sought to depict a great deed laid upon a soul unequal 
to the performance of it. He says: "In this view I 
find the piece com.posed throughout. Here is an oak 
tree planted in a costly vase whicli should have re- 
ceived into its bosom only lovely flow ers. The roots 
spread out, the vase is shivered to pieces. A beautiful, 
pure, noble and most moral nature, without the strength 



1 8 The TJicnic of Hamlet. 

of nerve which makes a hero, sinks beneath a burden 
which it can neither bear nor throw off; every duty is 
holy to him. How he turns, agonizes, advances and 
recoils, ever reminded, ever reminding himself, and, at 
last, almost loses his purpose from his thoughts, with- 
out ever again recovering his peace of mind." 

Of the German theories we have given Goethe's first, 
although it is the most familiar, for it is the result of 
careful study by the author of Faust ; and, as a model 
of criticism, it was, confessedly, the " wonder and de- 
spair " of such a man as Macaulay. Further, it shows 
with the context that Goethe regarded Hamlet as 
an actual person. He even speculated upon the 
early life of Hamlet before he went to Wittenberg. 
These windings, turnings, agonizings, advancings, re- 
coilings and remindings are the effects of causes-^the 
causes being the internal struggles of the mind — evi- 
denced — nay, illustrated, by their results. The reality, 
intensity, and continuity of these mental struggles 
constitute the theme of the poem and they are mani- 
fested by .the effects described by Goethe, which effects 
constitute the mirror. Goethe beautifully and accu- 
rately describes the mirror, but loses sight of the re- 
flected image. The great deed to be done is the con- 
trol and regulation of the passions. The soul upon 
which the deed is laid is the will guided by reason. 
The power which lays the deed upon this soul is super- 
natural. 

Herder says: "This work contains reflections 
upon life, the dreams of youth, partly philosophical, 
partly melancholy, such as Shakespeare himself (rank 
and station put out of view) may have had. Every 
still soul loves to look into this calm sea in which is 
mirrored the universe of humanity, of time and 
eternity." 

L. Boerne (1829) sa\'s : "Had a German written 
Hamlet I should not have wondered at the work. A 
German needs but a fair legible hand, he makes a copy 
of himself and Hamlet is done." 



TJic TJicinc of Hamlet. 19 

Edward Gans (1834) says: *' If Shakespeare's Ham- 
let is to be characterized in a word, it is the tragedy of 
the nothingness of reflection, or, as even this phrase 
may be varied, it is the tragedy of the intellect." 

Dr. Herman Ulrice (1839) says: "In Hamlet we 
behold the Christian struggling with the natural man 
and its demand for revenge in a tone rendered still 
louder and deeper by the hereditary prejudices of the 
Teutonic nations. /" '^ ^ The mind of Hamlet 
■^^ "^ * is throughout struggling to retain the mas- 
tery which the judgment ought invariably to hold over 
the will, shaping and guiding the whole course of life. 
•X- -jf Tf Whenever Hamlet does an act it is not upon 
the suggestion of his deliberate judgment, but hurried 
away by the heat of passion or by a momentary im- 
pulse." 

Dr. G. G. Gervinus (1849) says : "We feel and see 
our own selves in him ; and in love with our own de- 
ficiencies we have long seen only the bright side of this 
character," etc. 

Dr. Edward Vahse (1854) says: "Hamlet is the 
drama that utters the most startling, the most touch- 
ing, the saddest truths over this deep riddle, this fear- 
ful sphinx called life ; a drama that reveals to us what 
a burden this life is when a profound sorrow has 
robbed it of all charm." 

Herman Freiherr Von Friesen (1864) says: "Let 
us now in conclusion once more consider that however 
our weak words may attempt to elucidate the great 
mystery of these world-wide complications, we must 
nevertheless bow down before its depth and unfathom- 
ableness. What is here felt and wrought out and con- 
templated, the unconscious germ of it all dwells in the 
breast of universal humanity, and therefore the tragedy 
strikes with equal power the coarse strings of the least 
sensitive as well as the finer and more tender sym- 
pathies of the more susceptible." 

Prof. Hebler (1864) says: " Hamlet is Germany in. 



20 TJlc TJlciuc of Ilainlct. 

a most indubitable sense, in that the German attempts 
at elucidating Hamlet are the contemporaneous history 
of the German mind in miniature." 

" No-Philosopher" (1867) says: " It is not in Ham- 
let as in other pieces of Shakespeare's, the history of 
a single passion, the development of a few mental 
qualities, good or bad, that is set before us. In this 
drama Shakespeare sets himself a greater task — to 
make clear and intelligible from the whole structure of 
the piece a human soul in its totality, in its fluctuating 
action and in the finest vibrations by which the nerves 
are thrilled." 

Herman Grimm (1875) says: "A complete contra- 
diction has been embodied in Hamlet, and a perfect 
contradiction remains alike mysterious to the wise and 
to the foolish ; so surely as it is proved that such was 
the intention, so surely will this tragedy, as a work of 
art, forever have its effect ; and, by the will of the poet, 
appear a riddle." 

Coleridge (1803) says: "I believe the character of 
Hamlet is to be traced to Shakespeare's deep and ac- 
curate science in mental philosophy. Indeed, that this 
character must have some connection with the com- 
mon fundamental laws of our nature may be assumed 
from the fact that Hamlet has been the darling of 
every country in which the literature of England has 
been fostered." 

Again (1812) Coleridge says: "Shakespeare in- 
tended to portray a person in whose view the external 
world and all its incidents and objects were compara- 
tively dim and of no interest in themselves, and which 
began to interest only when they were reflected in the 
mirror of the mind." 

William Hazlitt (1817) says: "It is zvc who are 
Hamlet." 

Macaulay says of Shakespeare's v.orks: "There 
man appears as he is, made of a crowd of passions, 
which contenci for the mastery over him in turn, '^' 



TJiC Theme of Hamlet. 21 

^ * for it is the constant n:ianner of Shakespeare 
to represent the human mind as lying, not under the 
dominion of one despotic propensity, but under a 
mixed government, in which a hundred powers balance 
each other." 

If it should be supposed that Shakespeare did not 
intend to represent in Hamlet a person, a real charac- 
ter; and, that Hamlet was a being of his own creation, 
created not for the purpose of exhibiting himself or 
some person, but, as it were, an actor, whose ofBce it 
should be to manifest the thought of Shakespeare by 
the mental agitation revealed — feignedy in fact — by his 
speech and actions, the different views seemingly so 
discordant could be harmonized, accounted for, or re- 
futed ; and those who advocate Hamlet's insanitv 
would appear in error ; and the alleged insanity, either 
feigned or actual, no more established than the insanity 
of any player who interprets many parts in the same 
play. Every argument in favor of the theory of feigned 
insanity is an argument that Hamlet is an actor ; for 
feigningis acting. If Boswell and Dr. Connolly should 
come upon a man rehearsing his part in some tragedy 
for the stage, and, ignorant of his identity and purpose, 
should stop to consider his mental status. Dr. Connolly 
might claim the man to be insane ; and Boswell, ad- 
mitting that his speech and action indicated insanity, 
might, with reasonable argument, claim the person to 
be feigning madness. The revelation that he is an 
actor rehearsing his part would clearly discover the 
error of both. They might then agree, readily enough, 
that the speech and action of the stranger were designed 
to show the struggle with the passion then made to 
appear uppermost in the mind of the actor. 

The continuous power over Hamlet, under all cir- 
cumstances, was the command or control from without 
stiinulating the resolution — the will to revenge his 
father's death. The poet places him in different 
situations each calculated to stimulate opposition in 



22 TJic The VIC of Hamlet. 

his own mind to the execution of this constant resolve, 
and force the struggle with the passion thus for the 
time being made prominent and active. T-he speech 
and action of Hamlet are the effects produced by 
these struggles, and these effects are the vehicles 
of the poet's thought — his theme is reflected from 
their causes. So we must not regard him as a per- 
son, but as an actor called to play many parts in the 
same play and all the parts so combined as to pre- 
sent a view of the poet's thought, which was : the inter- 
nal, spiritual struggle between the higher elements of 
man's nature and the lower — the constant and continu- 
ous state of man in this world. The warfare is princi- 
pally in skirmishes and in sallies, but is constant, bitter 
and uncompromising. Hamlet is neither sane nor in- 
sane. He is an actor. Shakespeare created him and 
taught him how to act. He did not take a player and 
make of him a prince, but he took a prince and made 
of him an actor. The hero might truthfully say with 
Clarice in the play of Comedy and Tragedy : '' I am 
everybody — I am nobody." He who best plays the 
part impersonates most accurately Shakespeare's 
player — Hamlet. 

^ It must not be forgotten that we are speaking of a 
poet whose insight was little short of inspiration, and 
that we are treating of that work which was the result 
of his great care. He did not create this character to 
show his creative power, but to impart some idea of 
which this creation was the vehicle of communication. 
In other works he had clearly intensified and made con- 
stant as the ruling power *in his hero a single passion 
or group of passions — in this one he seems to have re- 
versed the method and made constant and predom- 
inant the will apparently under law, and represented it 
in conflict with all other spiritual forces of the being. 
Cole, the painter, conceived the idea of putting on 
canvas his poetic thought called the Voyage of Life. 
He grouped together trees, rocks and clouds, hills and 



The TJicmc of Hamlet. 23 

streams, and with his brush he told his thought. The 
attempt to show that such a combination is a copy 
from an actual scene in nature would be like the im- 
. possible one of showing that Shakespeare's character of 
Hamlet has a possible counterpart that matches all his 
moods. 

This tragedy is a mirror held up to the internal or 
spiritual life of man in this world. The struggle it 
represents is between the will, guided by reason, and 
the passions, under law from without — supernatural ; 
the conflict is universal, continuous, and ceases only 
when life is extinct ; and the result of the struggles, or 
the end of man's existence, is in another sphere. 

If I am right in the surmise as to the theme of this 
play, the play itself should bear out the theory. I 
will briefly examine it in this li2;ht. 

In this view, the play should exhibit (i) the reality 
— the fact — of the supernatural and its control, the law 
which is above man's will ; (2) the theatre of man's 
life in this world ; (3) rhe reality of the forces within, 
their antagonism and their relation to the will ; (4) the 
manifestations of such a struggle as we have indicated 
within the mind ; and (5) the fruitless result of the 
struggle so far as this life is concerned. 

In the first scene the reality of the supernatural is 
manifested. The whole atmosphere of the scene is 
charged with the supernatural. Every w^ord and its 
appropriate action reveal it. The spectator's attention 
is first drawn to a mystery impending, indicated by the 
mental agitation of Bernardo. The apprehension of 
the appearance of the ghost is apparent at every step. 
Francisco is entirely ignorant of the ghost. Bernardo 
and Marcellus are officers who have seen it and believe 
in its reality. Horatio is the scholar and skeptic \A'ho 
refuses to believe upon the evidence of the officers. 
This scene is clearly designed to indicate the nature of 
the supernatural appearance and the effect of its ap- 
pearance upon the minds of these characters ; and, by 



24 The Theme of Hamlet. 

the conversion and conviction of Horatio to emphasize 
its reality. It furnishes a clue for the interpretation 
of the entire play. 

We will imagine Shakespeare's instructions to the 
players in the rehearsal of the first scene. Shakespeare 
played the part of the ghost, and we may presume that 
he saw to it that in the scene where he appeared the 
actors were required to "suit the action to the word, 
the word to the action." The curtain rising should re- 
veal a representation of Elsinore ; and upon the side, 
but well to the front, a platform before the castle. The 
stage lights should be turned low. Francisco should 
be upon the platform, walking back and forth. He is 
to act the part of a sentinel who has nearly completed 
an entirely uneventful night-watch. He should appear 
as a soldier thus employed, anxious only for relief from 
duty ; and ignorant of any unnatural or exciting sur- 
roundings. The scenery should be so set that Bernardo 
may approach in the darkness unnoticed by Francisco, 
and not visible to him, but in the view of the audience. 
Bernardo, while approaching, and before he sees Fran- 
cisco, apparently hearing footsteps, should stop, mani- 
fest his fear by his action ; and, in an excited but sup- 
pressed voice, or loud whisper, should exclaim : " Who^s 
there f " Francisco, whose attention is arrested by this 
strange challenge, should stop; and, in measured, 
natural tones, demand, as from an unseen and unknown 
person : " Nay, answer ME, stand and inif old yourself ''' 
It should appear that neither can see the other, and 
the voice of Bernardo, as I have intimated, should be 
such as not to reveal his identity. Bernardo, on hear- 
ing the demand of the sentinel, and, appearing by his 
action to recognize that the apprehension which caused 
him unwittingly to disguise his voice was unwarranted, 
should deliver the password deliberately, as he now 
perceives that it was the step of the sentinel that had 
startled him, and he should say, in a natural tone of 
voice : " Long live the King I'' Francisco, hearing his 



The TJlcihc of Hnnilct, 25 

voice, in its natural tone, and, apparently inferring 
from it who it is that has spoken— the scene and his ac- 
tion making it appear that he cannot see him — should 
say, in tone either of inquiry or exclamation : ''Ber- 
nardo?"' Bernardo should promptly respond : " He,'' 
and should immediately approach, in plain view of the 
sentinel he comes to relieve. The darkness, the occasion, 
the manifestation of fear and the excited, unnatural 
voice of Bernardo, the change of voice, the recognition 
from it and the inquiry to verify the supposition from 
the voice that it is Bernardo are intended to in-dicate to 
the spectator that there is something mysterious in the 
situation — a mystery evidenced by these circumstances 
and the action of Bernardo's mind. Francisco un- 
wittingly throws a light upon the situation by his ob- 
servation : '' You come most careftilly upon your hour^ 
Bernardo replies : " ' Tis now struck' twelve ; get thee to 
bed, Francisco'' The strange action and speech of 
Bernardo, followed by this suggestion, his mind pass- 
ing from a state of fear to a desire of haste for Fran- 
cisco to leave him there alone, when he was just now 
startled by the sound of a footstep, indicate to the 
audience that there is a mystery, and that Francisco is 
not cognizant of it, nor interested in it. The state of 
Francisco's mind, in contrast with that of Bernardo, is 
shown by his remark in reply: ''For this relief, much 
thanks; 'tis bitter cold and I am sick at heart." The 
spectator perceives that he is not concerned about any- 
thing but his own comfort and condition, and that 
Bernardo's mind is agitated. Bernardo again reveals 
the state of his own mind by his inquiry : "Have you 
had — quiet — guard f This should be delivered in a 
hesitating manner. Francisco's prompt answer "TVi?/ 
a mouse stirring^' apparently calms the fear of Ber- 
nardo and convinces him that Francisco has not seen 
the ghost, and so he follows with, " Well, good nigJit^' 
— adding after a slight pause, and as if the result of 
his suddenly realizing the possibility of the reappear- 



26 TJic Theme of Hamlet. 

ance of the ghost — '^ If you do meet Horatio and Mar- 
cellus, the rivals of my watch, bid them make hasted 
The spectator thus far having seen the officer Ber- 
nardo approaching cautiously and startled by the 
sound of footsteps he naturally might have expected 
to hear, suddenly changing his tone and appearance, 
and the change, and the inquiries, answers and replies 
manifesting agitation in his mind different from what 
would be expected of an officer coming to relieve a 
sentinel in the ordinary routine of his duties — indi- 
cated by his conduct and excited inquiry : " Who 's 
there f and his change of voice and manner, and 
seeming haste to have Francisco retire, and his anxiety 
for the haste of the rivals of his watch — prepare the 
spectator for a revelation of something which is dis- 
turbing the thoughts of Bernardo, but which is un- 
known to Francisco. The agitation of Bernardo's 
mind is not apparent to Francisco, but it is to the 
audience, and the attention of the spectator is drawn 
to that. Thereupon Francisco should appear to 
be listening and should move away from Bernardo, 
while he observes : '' / think I hear them,'' and 
calls out. ''Stand, ho f Who is there f Hora- 
tio (apparently assuming that he and Marcellus arc 
challenged by Bernardo — expecting them) should an- 
swer in a light and unconcerned manner: ''Friends, 
to this ground^ He would hardly thus answer the 
challenge of a sentinel he did not suppose was ex- 
pecting him. Marcellus,. who believes in the ghost 
and is conscious of its possible proximity, should, 
in solemn voice, add : " And liegemen to the Dane.''' 
This interview should be remote from Bernardo and 
out of his sight and hearing (Bernardo's by-play 
should indicate that he does not hear), and the reply 
of Horatio and the remark of Marcellus should be 
made before they come near enough to discover 
that the challenging sentinel is not Bernardo. Hora- 
tio's reply should be in a tone and manner indicative 



TJic TJiemc of Hamlet. 



-/ 



of the absencfe of reverence, and the speech of Marcel- 
liis should be of such solemnity as might be expected 
of a person conscious of the probable presence of the 
ghost of the king. Marcellus, upon nearing Fran- 
cisco, who says, " Give you good-night ,'' suddenly dis- 
covers that the challenge was not from Bernardo, and 
upon this he opens his speech with the exclamation, 
"6^," ^nd says:' ^^ O, farewell, honest soldier; who 
hath relieved yon?'' He answers: ''Bernardo hath 
my place ; give you good-night ^ Francisco has been 
informed of their coming ; hence he allows them to 
approach him without giving the countersign. Mar- 
cellus is startled, discovering it is not Bernardo, and so 
he utters the exclamation " (9." Francisco then de- 
parts. The contrast between the state of Francisco's 
mind and that of Bernardo, should be maintained, as 
well as the contrast between the light-hearted, skeptical 
and merry state of Horatio's mind with the solemnity 
of that of Marcellus. Marcellus calls out for Ber- 
nardo, who should not be then in sight: '' Hilloa I 
Bernardo/'' and Bernardo again reveals his anxiety 
by an excited inquiry, and in the manner of a call to 
persons hidden from view by the darkness — " Say, 
what, is Horatio there?" Horatio should again dis- 
cover his state of mind by the reply : " A piece of him." 
Thereupon the three come within sight of each other 
and the anxious Bernardo says: " Welcome, Horatio ; 
welcome, good Marcellus." His demonstration of satis- 
faction in this speech should be in a manner to show the 
relief of mind which their presence gives him. It is 
already evident to the spectator that here is one mind 
excited, anxious and apprehensive, calmed and relieved 
by the presence of Horatio and Marcellus, and another 
light and flippant, and another solemn and reverential. 
That there is some mysterious occasion for this is ap- 
parent, and Horatio is ready with the inquiry: — the 
beginning of his inquiry " What," indicating his infer- 
ence from Bernardo's action in welcoming them, that 



28 The Theme of Hamlet. 

Bernardo had seen the ghost again — " WJiat, Jias this 
THING appeared again to-night f The reference to it 
as ''this thing'' and the manner of saying it manifest 
his unbelief. Bernardo answers : " / have seen 
nothing'' In the remainder of the scene the ghost 
appears and "harrows" Horatio with ''fear and won- 
der," by i.ts appearance, and converts his mind suddenly 
and effectually. While Horatio is giving what is in- 
tended by the author as a false explanation of the 
ghost, it reappears and its incorporeal nature is demon- 
strated, and its majestical character confessed. The 
omission of any communication and the full conversion 
of Horatio, the scholar and skeptic, coupled with what 
has preceded, reveal and postulate the reality — the 
fact — of the supernatural in the attitude of power and 
with some relation to human beings, but what its rela- 
tion is, is not declared. That is reserved for its ap- 
propriate place. It is something more than a fantasy. 
It is the spirit of the Majesty of Denmark — the ruler 
— appearing from another world. This scene furnishes 
the key to the interpretation of the play. It is a 
mirror constructed of mental agitation and action on 
the part of the actors, and, it reveals to the spectator 
the reality of the supernatural, spiritual ruler, a ruler 
with 

"the front of Jove himself : 
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command." 

We have seen the walking spirit of the king, but he 
has no voice for Horatio or the officers. He hies him 
away at the crowing of the cock. His voice and com- 
mand are for Hamlet. 

4 

The second scene reflects the natural world, the 
theatre of man's natural life. Here \Ve have the false- 
hearted murderer feigning grief, usurping power and 
rule, now wedded with his "sometime sister," prepar- 
ing for war ; and the libertine, Laeretes, home from 
France, and longing for return to the scenes of 



TJic Thctnc of Hamlet, 29 

revelry. These inspire Hamlet's commentary on the 
"weary, stale, flat and unprofitable uses of this world." 

'tis an unweeded garden 
That grows to seed ; things rank and gross in nature, 
Possess it merely." 

Then the poet introduces the hero and here he un- 
veils his mind. He casts a light on the tumult of pas- 
sions. The beautiful form is dignified and pleasing to 
the natural eye. It is not outward demonstration — 

" Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, 
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye. 
Nor the dejected 'haviour of the visage." 

He has, as he says : 

"That within which passeth show." 

The distracted mind, tossed and tortured by tumul- 
tuous passions, cries for deliverance. Grief, hatred, 
filial love, suspicion, reverence, ambition, fear, are shown 
in raging tumult tearing the heart and the mind of the 
melancholy prince, as yet unconscious of his father's 
spirit in arms. He longs for dissolution of his life and 
soliloquizes with pitiful agony: 

" O that this too, too solid flesh would melt, 
Thaw and dissolve itself into a dew ! 
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed 
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter ! O God ! O God ! 

This is a picture of desolation and despair, and the 
onlv refu""e for the distracted soul seems to be in dis- 
solution and annihilation. These contending passions 
here introduced are the forces with which the poet in- 
tends to put the will in conflict. The mental agitation 
is further discovered in the interview with Horatio and 
Marcellus which follows the soliloquy. 

The list is not yet complete. In the next scene the 
author introduces and gives special prominence to an- 
other and more powerful passion. He has placed in 
contrast the counterfeit sorrow of the king and queen 
with the genuine grief of the prince and he again cm- 



30 ' TJic Thcinc of Ilamlct. 

ploys the same art by putting the affections of a Hber- 
tine into contrast with the pure and true love of 
Hamlet for Ophelia. It is of the passion of love so 
revealed in this scene that the author makes Polonius 
say : 

"Whose violent property fordoes itself. 
And leads the will to desperate undertakings 
As oft as any passion under heaven 
That does afflict our natures." — [Act ii ; Sc. 2. 

The glimpses we have already had of this matchless 
mirror have revealed to ns the spirit of the king and 
father in arms, then the theatre of man's life in this 
world which appears a world of falsehood, deceit, mur- 
der, lust and war — then the mind of the hero occupied 
by and filled with conflicting and tumultuous passions, 
and special importance given to the passion of love. 
These are the influences to action which are to cope 
with the executive po'wer yet to be developed. The 
will of the hero must be stimulated and so governed 
that its conflict with the passions will be certain and 
constant. 

Thereupon the ghost and Hamlet are brought to- 
gether and a command is imparted to the hero, the 
execution of which he recognizes as involving the 
subordination of every passion and he is made to 
promise : 

" Yea, from the table of m3'' memory 
I'll wipe away all trivial, fond records, 
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past 
That youth and observation copied there ; 
And thy commandment all alone shall live 
Within the book and volume of my brain. 
Unmixed with baser matter : Yes, by Heaven !" 

This command is laiv to Hamlet. It is the expressed 
will of a higher being, and it immediately puts his own 
will, that must secure the execution of the mandate, 
into conflict with every passion which would seek to 
determine, direct or govern his action. It is not Ham- 



The Theme of Hamlet. 3 i 

let's passion of revenge that is to rule his mind and 
determine his action, but it is the command of his 
father's spirit and to obey his father's will is his duty, 
and that duty, to him, is a holy one. 

The situation is intended to force the contest of 
Hamlet's ivill with every obstacle in the way of the 
execution of the command. The obstacles, we have 
seen, are not the physical impediments to the killing of 
the king, but the forces within his own mind acting in 
opposition to his will. 

Here ends the first act. In it we have seen, as we 
have already stated, the power without and above, the 
theatre of man's life and action, and the door thrown 
open revealing contending occupants whose natural 
ruler is the w^ill ; and the will made single by the com- 
mand from without. The forces have been marshalled, 
the field selected and the contest should begin. Our 
author does not tarry. The struggle begins in the next 
act. 

The chiefest passion of the hero is the first to chal- 
lenge the supremacy of his will. The poet again in- 
dulges in his habit of putting in contrast the true with 
the false. He has given us the stern .command of the 
ghost to Hamlet and the genuine spirit of filial rever- 
ence and obedience. He has given us in contrast the pre- 
cepts of the sage Polonius to his son Laertes — precepts 
full of worldy wisdom. He now^ opens to our eyes the 
wayward life of Laertes and his life in France in dis- 
obedience and licentious living in the interview between 
Polonius and Reynaldo which opens the first scene of 
the second act — thus, in the same scene, contrasting the 
exhibition of obedience with disobedience and the illicit 
action of Laertes with what immediately follows — the 
revelation of the first great struggle between the will 
and the passion for Ophelia in the mind and heart of 
Hamlet. We are not shown Hamlet with Ophelia. 
Ophelia describes the pantomime enacted in her closet. 
VVe last saw him parting from his friend Horatio when 



3- The Thcjnc of Hamlet. 

he took upon himself the dread command. Now we 
hear of him from the lips of Ophelia. Alone, in her 
closet, he appeared before her. 

" Lord Hamlet, — with his doublet all unbraced ; 
No hat upon his head ; his stockings fouled, 
Ungartered and down-gyved to his ankle ; 
Paleas his shirt ; his knees knocking each other ; 
And with a look so piteous in purport, 
As if he had been loosed out of hell 
To speak of horrors, — he comes before me." 

She tells in impassioned language how he took her 
by the wrist and held her hand and she says : 

" He raised a sigh so piteous and profound 
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk 
And end his being: That done, he lets me go;" 

This is the mirror which the author holds up to the 
spectator. What a struggle! He was torn and racked 
by his love for Ophelia. What a conflict must have 
been raging within him to have brought this refined 
''courtier's eye" to such a plight ! His paleness and 
trembling knees and disturbed attire obtained before 
he came into the presence of his soul's affection. The 
passion of love was in conflict with his w ill and sought 
to change his purpose. This was not weakness of the 
will, its strength was giant-like to wrestle thus with 
such a love— the love of "more than forty-thousand 
brothers." 

This view is confirmed rather than shaken by the 
explanation which the blundering Polonius makes that 
Hamlet is mad from the pangs of love repulsed. It 
would not be artistic for the poet to make one of his 
characters truthfully explain the conduct of the prince. 
Polonius, particularly, could not be allowed thus early 
to pluck out Hamlet's mystery, much less to publish it 
to the court. It would impeach the author of weak- 
ness to suppose that Polonius hit the mark in his inter- 
pretation of the situation for the information of the 
spectator who is well aware of what Polonius is made 



The Theme of Hamlet. 33 

to appear most ignorant. The dumb-show described 
by Ophelia ''was never enacted " except in the imagi- 
nation of the poet. What is passing in the mind of 
Hamlet is made to appear the great concern of all 
about him. 

The next scene shows the subterfuge first adopted 
by the king to learn as he says : 

"Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus, 
That, opened, lies within our remedy," 

Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, being impatiently d\s- 
missed upon their mission, Polonius appears. The 
business of the State — the report of Volteman and Cor- 
nelius — ^is /^i-/?/^/ dispatched that heed may be given to 
the prating report of the prime minister as to the cause 
of the mental distemper of the prince, and then follows 
the plot to " loose his daughter to him " — to confirm 
Polonius' views. 

Polonius plies him to find out what is in the mind of 
Hamlet. Hamlet throws dust in his eyes by the use of 
words all wittily expressed, but they confirm Polonius' 
erroneous conviction that he is mad. The dialogue, 
so far from convicting Hamlet of insanity, evinces 
a wit that any sane man might env}*. Of the inter- 
view with Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, which fol- 
lows, the same is true. The}^ seek to know his 
thoughts, but Hamlet forces their confession that they 
were sent for to this end. The spectator knows their 
purpose. They come apparently to learn that which 
is plain to him, but they fail. This whole scene till the 
players appear, points always to the central thought — 
the state, condition and action of the minel oi Hamlet. 
The attention of the audience is always chained to the 
scenes therein enacted. 

The players then appear. In the recitation of the 
speech in response to Hamlet's demand for a "passion- 
ate speech " we have the counterfeit of passion — Hamlet 
calls it a " dream of passion "—in contrast with the gen- 



34 riic Theme of Hamlet. 

nine struggle which we see in his own mind, which fol- 
lows the departure of the players ; and he makes it a 
text to denounce his own weakness and inaction. He 
is made to seem not to know his own malady, for he 
says to Guildenstern and Rosencrantz : 

" I have of late (but, wherefore, I know not) lost all 
my mirth." 

Later on he says : 

" I do not know 
Why yet I live to say, this thing's to do ; 
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength and means, 
To do't." 

Withal he was then the victim of suspicion, and under 
its influence he plans the play to catch the conscience 
of the king. 

In the next act we have the sololiquy commencing: 
" To be or not to be." 

This is the first glimpse we get of the world beyond — 
'' the undiscovered country." It is the ever recurring 
query ; does death end all ? No, " ' tis a sleep where 
dreams may come." That insight which reads the 
thoughts of the king, his minister and the courtiers 
cannot pierce the veil of death. Whatever that "some- 
thing after death " may be it has relation to the acts, 
omissions and struggles this side of the grave. The 
dread of it "puzzles the will." In the interview with 
Ophelia which follows the soliloquy, the revelation is 
made to Hamlet that the lovely, charming, pure and 
pious "Rose of May" has been contaminated by the 
murderer's arts and that she has been led to submit 
herself to be his willing tool — and so he warns her to 
flv from the contamination of this world and seek refuG^e 
from it — not by suicide but in a nunnery. His solilo- 
quy had just revealed that death was not the refuge to 
be sought. The commentary is not on Ophelia but on 
her surroundings. In the dialogue with Horatio which 
follows the speech to the players, he sounds the praises 



The Tkc7?ic of Hamlet. 35 

of his friend in terms which eloquently proclaim him a 
model man whose will and judgment reign peacefully 
over his passions ; and so he says Horatio is the true 
ideal of manhood and concludes his encomium as 
follows : 

" Give me that man 
That is Y\oX. passion s slave, and I will wear him 
In m)^ heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart. 
As I do thee." 

His next words are ( I make them mine) : 
"Something too much of this." 

If we have thus far matched our theory with the 
play it is safe to trust Shakespeare's consistency in the 
remainder, and we will leave this branch of the inquiry, 
although it "tempts us sore" to note the praying 
king's remorse and Hamlet's failure to " do it pat," 
and the grave scene is attractive — telling us of the 
vanity of this life and pointing us to another world for 
the end of these distracting struggles, and we would 
note Hamlet's rebellious anger at the burial of Ophe- 
lia, which nearly dethrones his reason in seing tempo- 
rary triumph. Open the play at random and upon 
every page the wit, the wisdom, the acts and speech, 
and even " the wild and whirling words " of Shake- 
speare's hero illustrate the theme as we have surmised 
it. The tragedy is not that which culminates in the 
death of a victim. It is a spiritual tragedy. All the 
principal characters die — but all by aceident — all except 
the one who was not " passion's slave " — Horatio ! 

Nothing is plainer than that Shakespeare will not 
stoop to the explanation of his own thought. He can- 
not be convicted of conscious exposition of his own 
performances. He respects the intelligence of the 
spectators of his dramas; and so the critic who would 
catch the meaning of tlie play from the palpable ex- 
pressions of it uttered by the characters themselves 
will surely go astray. He who listens to the open 



36 The Thcrnc of Hamlet. 

declarations of the '' foolish, prating knave," and ac- 
cepts them as evidence, will certainly be misled. Not- 
withstanding this, we must adrhit that, as the author 
makes the hero say : 

"The players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all," 

so we quote fearlessly from the play to support our 
view. 

Hamlet to his father's ghost, in his mother's cham- 
ber and in her presence, says : 

" Do you not come your tardy son to chide, 
That, lapsed in time -^"cvd. passion, lets go by 
The important acting of your dread command ? " 

Laertes tells more than he meant when he says to 
Ophelia, speaking of Hamlet : ''His will is not his owny 
Hamlet seconds him in : 

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew 
them how we will." 

And what Hamlet did for his mother the author does 
for the spectator : he '* sets you up a glass where you 
may see the inmost part of you." Shakespeare " speaks 
by the card " when he makes his hero utter: 

" What is a man. 
If his chief good, and market of his time, 
Be but to sleep and feed ? a beast, no more. 
Sure, He that made us with such large discourse, 
Looking before and after gave us not 
That capability and god-like reason 
To fust in us unused." 

Ophelia's genuine madness is the triumph of a sin- 
gle passion over will or reason. Wc have the judg- 
ment of the king, who says of it : 

" O ! this is the poison of deep grief." 

The clown tells Hamlet that the loss of his wits will 
not be seen in him in England — for there the men are 
as mad as he. This is irony which an English audi- 
ence could not mistake, for otherwise the play of 
Hamlet would have shared the fate of the speech 



The Tlicnic of Hauilct. 



d/ 



which he says " pleased not tlic million." If such a 
speech were enacted, and the audience understood the 
hero was insane, it would not have been acted in Eng- 
land, '^ or if it were, not above once." 

In the play within the play, a dozen or sixteen lines 
of which were Hamlet's, we have some light. The 
play king says : 

" What to ourselves in passion we propose, 
The passion ending doth the purpose lose. 
The violence of either grief or joy 
Their own enactures with themselves destro}^ ; 
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament; 
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. 
This world is not for aye ; nor 'tis not strange, 
That even our loves should with our fortunes 

change ; 
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove. 
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. 

¥ :^ ■^ ^ ^. ■:)(. 

Our wills and fates do so contrary run. 
That our devices still are overthrown ; 
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own." 

If Horatio ever did — as he was bidden by Hamlet to 
do — tell the story of the prince ; or, if he ever reported 
him and his cause, cruel oblivion has swallowed and 
suppressed it. The efforts of Guildenstern to pluck 
out the heart of his mystery, futile then, have been 
emulated through the centuries. Yet Hamlet's hint 
that he was an instrument, has been unheeded, unless 
Dr. Johnson intended to express the thought when he 
wrote, " Hamlet is through the whole piece rather an 
instrument than an agent." He scorned the attempt 
to play upon him by the euphuistic courtier, but he 
yielded to the touch of the master-hand with rapture ; 
and, so played upon by Shakespeare, he did discourse 
most excellent music — music that will enchant human- 
ity till millenium. 

" Would not this, sir," even without a " forest of 
feathers," or even if the rest of his fortunes should 



38 The Thcnic of Ilavilct. 

"turn Turk" with him, or without "two provincial 
roses " on his " razed shoes " get him " a fellowship 
in a cry of players, sir"? Yes, a whole share. 
. And now comes Fortenbras ; let him, as Shake- 
speare makes him speak, answer this query. Horatio's 
proposition to place all the bodies high on a stage 
gives him the hint, and so he says : 

" Let four captains 
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage; 
For he was likely, had he been put on, 
To have proved most royally." 

Is not this Shakespeare's hint as to the mystery of 
Hamlet? The author was about concluding a play 
which was to be, and has been, the seeming puzzle of 
literature. He had made Hamlet the patron of 
players, nay, a companion familiar in speech and ac- 
tion. He had made him magnify the calling in open 
declaration, and publish his own familiarity with it by 
criticisms of the traveling players — and his own recita- 
tions from the play " which pleased not the million " 
elicited the praises of the prime minister. He had 
made him appear as a playwright and manager, and 
had made him teach the dramatic art in eloquent 
phrase ; and, as to a master, the players listened to 
him — players recognized and lauded as the leaders of 
the dramatic stage. Shakespeare, himself an actor, 
could not withhold his benediction on his darling child 
as he took his leave of him, and so he hints through 
Fortenbras that Hamlet was a player — to have stated 
it plainly would have been an ofTense to royalty and, 
probably, would have imperilled the success of the 
work if it did not the life of the author. 

Here is an actor within an actor, a play within a 
i)lay, and a drama of the inner man. 



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